Will Gerrits continues to make lemons into lemonade this season after a trying night at Beaver Dam still yielded solid results for the GCM #21 machine.
The night began with a quickly drying track in hot laps/qualifying, and with Gerrits being stuck in the final group, a bottom half qualifying effort was inevitable for the Waupun, WI native. However, Lady Luck was on Gerrits’ side, meaning his 22nd place effort would put him on pole for the 2nd heat of the night.
Gerrits would use an already rubbered up low side of the speedway to get out to an early lead, and never look back. Beating the 2nd place car, Tim Haddy in the 21h, by nearly a straightaway at the checkered flag. However, an format based nearly wholly off of Qualifying, meant Gerrits would start 14th in the 25 lap A Main later in the night. Meanwhile, Gerrits’ teammate Tyler Brabant in the #99 car failed to qualify after a vibration caused Brabant to pull off before taking time. That put Brabant behind the 8 Ball all night, but would pass 6 cars in the B Main to finish just 2 spots out of the transfer.
A race where all 4 heat winners start 10th or worse is sure to be a barn burner, and the MSA Feature did not disappoint. Gerrits would start working the middle-high groove of the speedway to get around multiple cars quickly. However, an ultra-competitive field meant Gerrits would find himself getting forced to the bottom to keep his position multiple times, but each time would power back to the rubber and continue his charge. Now working in the top 10, “The Flying Dutchman” would live up to his nickname, slicing through both lapped traffic and the outside top 10 cars on a now fully rubbered up track to bring home a 9th place finish, battling to the end with the likes of Lance Fassbender, Jordan Paulsen and Paul Pokorski. A fantastic result after having to start deep in the midfield, and 2 straight rainouts to start what should have been a 3 race weekend.
“This weekend was pretty decent for what we got in.” Gerrits said. “Thursday we put both cars in the A straight from the heat race but got rained out right after that. After the rainout Friday we were loaded and ready for Saturday. Tyler had some vibrations in the car in qualifying and didn’t take time, and I timed in in the bottom half. Wasn’t really what we were looking for but it put us on pole for the heat race and we kinda ran away with it. Tyler was very tight in the heat and didn’t transfer to the A. In the B, Tyler ventured to the high groove and passed a few cars and came up just 2 spots short of transferring. In the A, I kept getting shuffled to the bottom of the restarts, not ideal on the rubbered in track. But we ended up passing quite a few cars at the end and came up with a top 10. Very cool at our “home” track.”
That 9th place finish along with the dominant heat race win propelled Gerrits back into the Top 10 of the MSA Points Standings, and surely boosted the team’s confidence heading into another multi-race weekend.
This Friday the MSA will head to the Horsepower Half Mile at the Dodge County Fairgrounds for the rescheduled ”Harry Neitzel Memorial.” Then on Saturday the 360’s return home to the Plymouth Dirt Track for the traditional “Fair Night” race on Labor Day weekend. The MSA will be playing second fiddle to the IRA 410’s both nights. Gerrits has also teased that the GCM/NAPA team will be racing with the IRA 410’s at 141 Speedway this Sunday as well, but nothing is confirmed at this time.
RACE RUNDOWN
Qualifying: 22nd out of 31 Cars
Heat: S/1, F/1
A Main: S/14, F/9
NEXT RACE
Friday, September 4th, Dodge County Fairgrounds, Beaver Dam, WI. Harry Neitzel Tribute, MSA 360 Sprints.
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